Lawmaker rules out SOFA would be put to vote

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A leading lawmaker of the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front (IAF) on Tuesday ruled out the Iraq-U.S. security pact would be put to vote, adding his bloc would not attend a parliamentary session on the deal if its demands were not met. “The IAF would not enter the parliament if there was no popular referendum over the agreement or assurances from the U.S. side that it is serious about improving the situation,” Abdelkareem al-Samarraie told IraqiNews.com. He said voting over the deal could be postponed because everyone agreed on the seriousness and sensitivity of this issue. The Iraqi cabinet last week had approved with an overwhelming majority of 27 votes to one the security pact between Iraq and the United States, also known as the status of forces agreement (SOFA), and was referred to Parliament for voting. SOFA should legalize the presence of U.S. forces on Iraqi territories after the end of this year, when the deadline given for a UN Security Council mandate for the U.S. army to intervene in Iraq is scheduled to expire. SOFA had drawn wide-scale local popular and political controversy after the cabinet endorsed it on last week, particularly from the Sadrist bloc of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr. In accordance with the Iraqi constitution, SOFA cannot be effective before the parliament approves it. AmR (S) 1